Ever After
by screaming-poetically
Summary: Fairy tales weren’t meant for Aiden Burn, and neither were happy endings. She just wanted an ever after. [FA]


**Title:** Ever After  
**Summary:** Fairy tales weren't meant for Aiden Burn, and neither were happy endings. She just wanted an ever after.  
**Disclaimer: **The names of all characters contained herein are the property of Anthony Zuiker, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, CBS and Alliance Atlantis. No infringements of these copyrights are intended, and are used here without permission.  
**A/N:** Spoilers for "Heroes." One of two fics written for the beautiful Jen as a (belated) birthday present.  
**Rating:** T

**Ever After**

Aiden's mother would read her stories before she put her little girl to bed. It was a simple ritual that was all theirs, and Aiden wouldn't give it up for the entire world. There were no Aesop's Fables, or stories of Greek Mythology; no, the stories Aiden's mother told her were fairy tales. She loved them not because they told of princesses and love and little red riding hoods, but because they weren't real. They never would be.

As she grew older, Aiden realized that even though she didn't believe in fairy tale endings, they did exist for some people – just not for her. Fairy tales weren't meant for Aiden Burn, and neither were happy endings. She just wanted an ever after.

It took a week of working with Detective Don Flack – "with a Jr." he reminds her, wanting desperately never to be his father – to fall in love with him. He never knew, until the day two years later when he met her walking out of the subway and she looked up at him, everything he was never supposed to know in her eyes. He looked as if he was going to say something, but then he shook his head and continued walking down.

The next day, though – the next day made all the difference in the world.

_The subway car rattled over the tracks as it moved quickly under the city. It was nearly seven o'clock, and Aiden had just gotten offshift. Summer in the city was such an ambivalent time – higher crime rates, sunlight lasted longer, more work, yet more opportunities to go out and about. Aiden shifted on her feet, careful not to bump into the man who had boarded behind her. The car was absurdly crowded, and she tried to ignore her minor claustrophobia._

"_Hey, Aiden?"_

_She whirled around – at least, as much so as she could accomplish on a crowded subway car – and gasped as she recognized the speaker. The man behind her, whom she had been so careful not to step on, was in fact the very detective she had left the lab so eager to avoid._

"_Don!"_

_He rubbed the back of his neck uneasily, and said hurriedly, "Listen, Aid, about yesterday, I didn't mean to run off on ya so quickly, it's just that…Well. I meant to talk to you at the lab but I didn't get the chance, cause I've wanted to ask you out on a date, but you know…"_

_Aiden stared blankly back at Flack for a moment before she realized that he had, in fact, asked her out on a date, and was staring back at her hopefully._

"_Okay."_

_An announcement came over the speaker, calling for all passengers at the orange line to prepare to get off. A vague, annoyed look came over her face at this – she hadn't counted on her stop coming up so quick. She grabbed a pen out of her purse and smiled softly at Flack._

"_Call me, okay?" she said, scrawling her number across his palm in black ink._

_The subway car screeched to a halt and she leaned up, kissed him quickly on the cheek before heading home. Life was about to get a lot better, she thought._

Turned out Flack couldn't wait twenty-four hours before calling her, and even then it turned out he was calling her from right down the street. Aiden found it endearing and they went out to dinner that night – true, it was nearly eleven and they had work the next day, but love has no time schedule.

They talked for awhile at a 24-hour diner over apple pie and coffee, about lots of things but mostly each other. He talked about his family, how he never wanted to be his father and how close he is with his ma. She talked about how she worried about Danny, and how she decided to be a CSI. Just thinking about their conversation kept them going 'til the next one.

A few months later found Aiden and Flack living together in an apartment, something that was Stella's idea because hey – they were practically living together anyway. Aiden wouldn't part with her apartment (good lighting, great space, and low rent control) so he moved in with her and so far, it had been great. She didn't like to think about before, when the apartment had been empty spaces and a place she didn't live in, only a place she went to when work was out and she needed to sleep. Now, well – now, the place looks lived in.

Don hadn't given her a fairytale, but he had given her hope of an ever after, which was all Aiden had ever dreamed of. And, all considered, it was all she could ever have wanted.

Everything was great, until DJ Pratt reappeared. After the rape case that never went to court, he went off the radar and she had hoped (oh god, had _prayed_) that he had just disappeared. Moved, even, so that he would become someone else's problem. But then he raped Regina again and Aiden didn't have a choice, she had to take this case – it was destiny, it was _her case_.

Don had warned her, though, had tried damn hard to get her to drop it, but she was her mother's daughter and wasn't likely to give up. Not until Pratt was behind bars (twenty-five to life, and with no parole if Aiden had her way.)

"_Baby, I know you're worried about this guy, but it's not your problem –"_

"_It'll _always_ be my problem, Don! Always. This case… It haunts me. You understand? I need to deal with this."_

And then she got weak, or strong, depending on your point of view. Don said strong while Aiden said weak, and that was just like him, to always see the best in her while she believed the worst. It was why she loved him. After Mac fired her (something he should've done, Aiden had to admit) she started working on getting her P.I. license. That was Don's idea. He said that she would always have the need to be out doing something along the lines of policework, and the closest thing to it was being a P.I.

Aiden did well on it, too, until she saw DJ Pratt on the streets one day and she remembered Regina Bowen and how she nearly planted evidence and that whole case. She started her own investigation of Pratt that very same day, but never told Don because she knew he'd tell Mac and then everything would be over.

Two weeks later Pratt found a victim, and she went by his typical _modus operandi_. She was average height, blonde, alone, and had left her apartment for what was most likely a late-shift job. Pratt followed her and Aiden followed him, but when she got to the alleyway, he was nowhere to be seen, and the only thing that happened was a hand covered her mouth and she was dragged fiercely further into the alley.

She could only think in fragments as the man (who was clearly Pratt) pushed her inside the parked car and landed on top of her, and had begun landing blows.

_Everything is connected._

(The blonde girl, decoy. Alleyway, Aiden herself must be the target. Leave some trace behind. Mac made a promise. He'll know. Don…)

And the last coherent thought Aiden had was that she hoped Don wouldn't be mad that she wouldn't be coming home tonight.

_finis._


End file.
